Technical Field
Embodiments of the subject matter disclosed herein generally relate to the field of seismic sensing. In particular, the embodiments disclosed herein relate to devices, methods and systems for seismic coupling for geophysical sensing applications.
Discussion of the Background
Seismic sensors are deployed over land for geophysical data applications. The sensors need to make firm contact with the ground in order to accurately record seismic data. Firm contact is today achieved when a human operator “plants” each sensor firmly into the ground. However, for high density seismic acquisitions, the number of sensors that need to be deployed is too large for being efficiently planted by humans. Thus, some traditional seismic acquisitions skip this step and the human operator just “drops” the sensors on the ground. For this scenario, the sensors often suffer from substandard coupling to the ground, resulting in poor data quality.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,998,536, which is incorporated herein by reference, describes a solution in which a machine digs a trench, deploys the sensors in the trench, and then covers the sensors with soil. While the quality of the geophysical data generated may be improved, implementing such a solution adds complexity to the deployment process. In addition, such a method requires that the machine has easy access to the place where the sensors need to be deployed, which sometimes is not possible. Further, such method may inaccurately place the sensors or damage them during deployment.
What is needed is a deployment and coupling solution that does not add significant complexity to the acquisition process.